Sarah Wilson and her daughter, Emily attended an amphibian crossing training session offered by the Ashuelot Valley Environmental Organization about a decade ago and have been "hooked ever since" as members of a Salamander Crossing Brigade.

As part of a New England effort to help them safely cross roads get to the pools, volunteers spread out over streets on rainy spring nights, early in spring.

They are known as Salamander Crossing Brigades and they are out there now.

They help expedite the crossings of spotted salamanders, wood frogs, spring peepers and, in the Keene area, the rare Jefferson salamander.

"It's such an exciting time of year," said Brett Amy Thelen. She is science director at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock and leader of the Keene area Salamander Crossing Brigades.

She describes vernal pools as little nurseries for all sorts of amphibians.

The spring peeper a common sound of spring in New England other peepers to the pool party.

The salamanders need rainy nights to move. They often go back to the pool where they were born and are only moving about 500 yards or less, Brett said, but roads, particularly, create danger.

The car is a huge threat to a migrating spotted salamander, which can live 20 years, and only begins to breed between ages 2 and 5.

On Friday night, April 11, the Salamander Brigades in seven sites throughout the Monadnock Region were able to help about 1,700 amphibians cross the road, according to the Asheulot Valley Environmental Observatory, the citizen science arm of the Harris Center.

They could not help them all.

While 547 peepers were taken out of harm's way at one site in Keene, 158 others were casualties of that road that same night.

The creatures are fortunate when the rain comes late at night on a weeknight. That helps reduce mortality with fewer cars late at night.

"There is this push to get to the pools," Brett said of their drive to cross the yellow line.

Wood frogs are amazing, she noted. They can survive after freezing solid, and they are hopping off to the pool right now, if it is dark and rainy.

Brett said volunteers sometimes put out temporary signs to alert motorists to the presence of Salamander Brigades along the side of the road, but they have no authority to stop cars.

Temperature is also a factor for Big Nights. The perfect conditions are about 45 degrees and light rain.

The process is very uplifting, Brett said. Literally, by picking up a frog or a salamander and getting it across the street, she said, she can feel better about nature.

"It feels hopeful," she said. "There is so much depressing environmental news. It's easy to feel helpless. This is a hopeful act that directly impacts a life."

She asked people to not drive unnecessarily on rainy nights and to think about these creatures crossing.